


From the Angel File: 1789

by MaeveBran



Series: From the Angel Files [9]
Category: Angel: the Series, Pirates of the Caribbean (Movies)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-04-17
Updated: 2006-08-20
Packaged: 2018-02-25 17:14:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,575
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2629844
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaeveBran/pseuds/MaeveBran
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Angelus and Darla take a cruise to the New World aboard an unlikely vessel.  (Several related ficlets).</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. 1789

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This takes place after Angel 5.11 "Why We Serve", and is set in my Angel Files AU. Contains spoilers for the movie "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl".

"Sixty years of blood drying in my throat like ashes." Angel kept hearing the sentence ring in his mind. His past kept coming up to hurt his people; no matter what he did, he could never escape it. 

He was trying to sleep but the events of Lawson's visit that night kept running through his head. The sentence repeated in his mind once more and he realized that he knew what Lawson meant. Thanks to his recent review of his file, the events of a certain fateful voyage were fresh in his mind...

The year had been 1789, and Angelus and Darla set out for the New World. They had booked passage on a ship; that ship had been captured by a pirate vessel captained by a man named Barbossa. They had been taken prisoner, for their dress had given the pirates the idea that they might be worth ransom. 

The captain had given them a private cabin and set out for Port Royal. The two vampires had not been worried about the change of plan; though the door to the cabin had been barred and their guards armed, the pirates had not reckoned with vampire strength. It had all seemed so easy, to find a member of the crew who wouldn't be missed and keep him captive for food, then escape when they reached their destination. 

He and Darla had found two. They were the most ineffectual sailors either vampire had ever seen. Darla had lured them into hauling water to the cabin for a bath. Angelus had watched as Darla, clad only in a dressing gown, had simpered and seduced the tall skinny sailor, who had a wooden eye. Angelus had then grabbed the shorter stout sailor, and both vampires began to feed.

Unexpectedly, the blood had turned to ash in Angelus's mouth. The man he had been drinking from was suddenly bathed in moonlight as a cloud moved away from the full moon, revealing him to be something other than an ordinary pirate. He, as well as Darla's victim, both changed into skeletons, their suddenly tattered clothing slipping from the vampires' grasps.

"What the Hell is going on?" Angelus spat out the ash and demanded angrily. Darla did the same, though in a more restrained, ladylike manner.

"We be cursed," answered his victim. "We are neither alive nor dead. The moonlight reveals us for what we are."

"That is a feeling we can share," Darla lisped around her fangs, for she was still wearing her game face. 

Her sailor looked up at her face with a shocked expression. "What's wrong with your face?" demanded the skinny man.

"Should we tell them?" Darla playfully asked.

"Why not? What are they going to do? They're cursed as well," answered Angelus with equal playfulness.

"We're vampires," Darla said, as she let her terrible visage fade into her beauteous face. Angelus let his game face fade as well.

"Vampires," said the tall one with awe.

Their victims left the cabin and told the Captain about the vampires. Fortunately, the Captain was glad to have two more immortals on the crew. Angelus and Darla, amused and diverted by the unexpected turn of events, gladly turned pirate for the last part of the voyage to the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

Angel remembered that food, for vampires, was never in short supply on a pirate vessel. Though it had not been long after the aborted feeding before fresh blood crossed his lips, he had not been able to fully rid himself of the taste of the ashes of the crew's blood. It had stayed with him as a memory for centuries. It did not take much effort to recall, and he could taste it even now.

He had never wanted to inflict that on anybody else, but apparently he already had. Lawson now no longer had the problem, but it still weighed on Angel now as yet another act to gain redemption for.


	2. History Lesson

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Takes place prior to the Season 2 episode, "Bad Eggs".

Buffy sat in history class bored out of her mind. She was trying to pay attention, honest she was, but all those names and dates kept swirling around in her head and were starting to make her dizzy.

Then she spied the picture of the pirate in her textbook. Now _that_ man was good looking. The man standing beside him looked familiar, too. Then she recognized him-- it was Angel! The date on the drawing said 1789. That would make him a vampire of thirty-six, back in his bad old days, and that meant the pirate beside him had been up to no good. She would have to ask Angel about that later after patrol. It had to be an interesting story, even if would feature heavily on the bloody side of Angelus.

The bell rang signaling the blessed end of another school day. Buffy joined the crowd exiting the classroom. She, Willow and Xander went to their lockers and then on to the library.

"Giles, how complete are those Watcher's diaries?" Buffy asked by way of greeting, once she was certain that only the Scoobies were present.

"Fairly complete as far as I know," Giles answered. Then he realized who had asked the question. "Why?"

"Because, look at this," Buffy said as she opened her history text. Giles, Willow and Xander gathered around and looked. They were stunned once they realized what they were looking at. "Do the diaries mention Angelus in the Caribbean? In the late 1700's?" 

"Ah, no, they don't," Giles answered after consulting the proper diary.

A couple of hours later Buffy sat on a blanket in one of the cemeteries working on her history home work while waiting for a vampire to rise and for Angel to drop by. Angel made an appearance before the other vampire rose, and joined her on the blanket. He put his arm around Buffy and drew her close. She dragged the textbook with her. 

He glanced over and saw the picture. "Where did they get that?" Angel asked softly.

"I have no idea. But wasn't that a little sloppy, getting your face on a wanted poster?" Buffy replied.

"Yes. Darla and I had taken passage on that pirate ship, the Black Pearl," Angel responded as if lost in the mists of time. "We thought it would be the perfect cover. They would attack other ships and we could feed, and in between we could feed on a crewmember here and there. 'Cause they were pirates, they were bound to fight and kill each other." He laughed ruefully. "We were wrong about that last part. They were cursed pirates. They could understand. We ended up sailing with the crew more than once over the next eight years."

Buffy was stunned. Her boyfriend had been a pirate. That was so totally cool. Strange but cool.


	3. Vampire Pirate

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Angelus spies his next victim to sire. (Set during the Tortuga scene in Dead Man's Chest.)

The tavern on Tortuga was busy as usual. The rum was flowing. Pirates and sailors of all types were taking a rest. The bar wenches were busy serving drinks and trying to stay out of reach from the more loathsome customers while enticing the more desirable ones. The place was a din of activity-- just the way Angelus liked it. 

Angelus was alone in the tavern as Darla had already found a new victim to sire. She would be busy for at least a couple of weeks. That suited Angelus very well. He could do the same without her nagging him to share the spoils. He was on the prowl for his next victim. None of the serving wenches caught his fancy, but there was one 'lady' that did. He didn't think she was a lady in the true sense of the word, however, as she was wearing man's clothing.

A fight had just broken out because a drunk had been trying to sign on to the Black Pearl, but he had some disagreement with the First Mate. Something about the Captain of that ship being the cause of the drunk's loss of his commission in the Royal Navy. Whatever the cause, an all out brawl was in progress. Angelus sat back to watch and take in the destruction. The 'lady' in breeches was in the middle of it all. She obviously was trying to pass as a teenage boy. It probably fooled the drunks in the tavern but Angelus could smell the scent of womanhood on her. 

She was magnificent. She was handling the sword in her hand as well as any man and doing so with a fluid grace. Angelus wondered what she would be like handling a different sword in the privacy of his chambers. He started to make his way towards her, but stopped when she picked up a bottle and hit the drunk over the head with it.

"I just wanted to do that myself," she declared as everyone stopped and looked at her. 

The crowd cheered and took the drunk out and threw him into the pig sty. The 'lady' followed and tried to revive the drunk; she obviously knew him. There were too many people hanging about for Angelus to make his move, so he just followed the 'lady' and the drunk. They ended up on the Black Pearl. 

'Too bad Barbossa's no longer Captain' Angelus thought. 'Him could deal with. But this new Captain, for all that he is a pirate, he has a sense of honor. No way he'd give me the 'lady'. I'll just have to wait till she comes back.'


End file.
